IDNEWSNOW.COM, Jakarta – President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo while observing a mass vaccination drive in Yogyakarta said the government would start preparing the transition of COVID-19 from pandemic to endemic. He asserted that the virus would not entirely disappear in the near future and thus called on people to get used to living with the virus.
“We must start preparing the transition from a pandemic to an endemic and learn how to live together with COVID,” said the President at state school for the disabled SLBN 1 Yogyakarta on Friday, September 10.
Echoing the previous statements from state officials, he urged people to avert basking in the euphoria of dropping coronavirus cases and reminded people to continue wearing masks as a daily practice.
Asked separately, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin explained that the transition period will see people engage in daily public activities that are adapted to each region’s public activity restriction (PPKM) levels. He said the government would also step up its testing, tracing, and treatment efforts to mitigate future case surges.
Sadikin asserted that living alongside COVID-19 from its status as pandemic to endemic is the reality that the Indonesian population must soon comprehend.
Read: Sri Mulyani Predicts COVID-19 to Become Endemic in 2022
EGI ADYATAMA
